Since the assignment was to create a movie related to teaching, I decided to make something that I could use in one of my classes. The video shows the war mobilization process that the United States went through at the beginning of World War II. The idea came from a power point presentation that I made to teach 11th grade U.S. History. I took the text from the power point and turned it into a script, then inserted the pictures I already had from the original presentation. When I changed the text to make it more narrative it left gaps in the images, so I supplemented the originals with a few extra photos and some war production posters. The idea is that this would be something a teacher could use to introduce a lesson on WWII war mobilization. It’s not enough information to be a complete lesson on the topic for a high school history course, but it’s exactly the right kind of format and presentation style to catch teenagers’ attention at the beginning of a class.

This was the first time I’d ever made any kind of presentation or video in a format more advanced than power point, so it was definitely interesting. It took me forever to finish it, but now that I know how the program works, I think it will go much faster next time. Overall, I was really happy with how it turned out. The only main problem I have with the program is the limits on text. There were several times that I had to split sentences into two different slides and couldn’t get the complete thought on the screen at once. I also wish there was a way to preview and edit the video without having to republish it every time, since that seemed to take awhile.

I love your music choice. It makes it really intense and you get the “mobilization sense” that complements your subject. I agree about the text though now that I finished, it strikes me how much words don’t matter too much when you have pictures. Words really are only there to give the pictures a push. But good work!